97^.7L6^  Barton,    Wi  J  Ham  E. 

CB2Rin 

The   Influence   of    I  Minors    in 
the   devel  ontnent    of   Abraham 
L^  ncol n 


LINCOLN  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 

HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  ILLINOIS  IN 

THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


BY 


WILLIAM  E.  BARTON.  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 


REPRINTED  FROM  THE  TRANSACTIONS  OF  THE  ILLINOIS  STATE  HISTORICAL 

SOCIETY  FOR  THE  YEAR  1921 


(78186-226) 


LINCOLN  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 

HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  ILLINOIS  IN 

THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

BY 

WILLIAM  E.  BARTON,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 


REPRINTED  FROM  THE  TRANSACTIONS  OF  THE  ILLINOIS  STATE  HISTORICAL 

SOCIETY  FOR  THE  YEAR  1921 


PHILLIPS   BROS.'   PRINT. 
SPRINGFIELD.  ILLINOIS. 


73186—225—1922 


alb,     ' 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  ILLINOIS  IN  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 


By  William  E.  Barton,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

Lincoln  and  Illinois  were  twin-born.  Abraham  Lincoln  first  saw 
light  on  Sunda}',  February  11,  1809.  Nine  days  before  his  birth,  Illi- 
nois, by  Act  of  Congress,  began  its  autonomous  existence  as  a  territory. 
The  future  commonwealth  and  its  most  illustrious  citizen  began  life 
together,  both  unconscious  of  the  influence  which  each  was  to  exert 
upon  the  destiny  of  the  other. 

The  first  seven  years  of  Lincoln's  life  were  spent  in  Kentucky,  and 
twice  seven  years  following  were  spent  in  Indiana.  Both  of  those 
States  did  well  by  him;  but  when  he  came  to  his  twenty-first  year, 
Illinois,  his  own  State,  beckoned  to  him,  and  he  came.  He  came  in 
the  dawn  of  his  young  manhood,  and  the  whole  of  that  manhood  he 
spent  as  a  citizen  of  this,  his  State.  From  the  time  he  entered  the 
young  commonwealth  in  the  Spring  of  1830,  driving  an  ox-team 
through  the  rich,  deep  mud  of  her  prairies,  until  he  left  it  to  be  inau- 
gurated President  of  the  United  States,  he  lived  in  Illinois-  Gladly 
yielding  him  to  the  Nation,  when  the  Nation  called,  Illinois  still  knew 
him  as  her  own,  and  believed  in  him  and  loved  him ;  and  when  his  work 
was  accomplished,  and  crowned  by  his  martyrdom,  Illinois  stood  tear- 
fully awaiting  the  arrival  of  that  majestic  funeral  train  that  wound 
its  way  westward  through  many  cities  from  the  Nation's  capitol,  and 
received  back  again  into  the  heart  of  her  soil  the  precious  dust  of  her 
own  Abraham  Lincoln. 

It  should  be  an  interesting  and  profitable  inquiry,  what  influence 
had  Illinois  upon  Abraham  Lincoln?  Did  she  help  or  hinder  in  his 
development?  Might  it  have  been  as  well  for  him  and  the  State  had 
he  lived  otherwhere?  These  are  legitimate  questions,  and  not  unprofit- 
able ;  the  more  so  because  I  do  not  find  that  they  have  been  answered, 
or  even  very  seriousl}'  asked.  Among  the  biographers  of  Lincoln,  no 
one,  I  think,  traced  his  life  so  lovingly  in  its  relation  to  that  of  his 
State,  as  Hon.  Isaac  N.  Arnold.  He  approached  the  possibility  of 
considering  this  question,  but  did  not  pursue  the  inquiry  far,  nor  did 
he,  apparently,  arrive  at  a  convincing  answer.    He  said : 

"When,  in  1830,  Lincoln  became  a  citiz:^n  of  Illinois,  this  great  common- 
wealth, now  the  third  or  fourth  state  in  the  Union,  and  treading  fast  upon 
the  heels  of  Ohio  and  Pennsylvania,  was  on  the  frontier  with  a  population  a 
little  exceeding  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand.  In  1860,  when  Lincoln  was 
elected  President,  it  had  nearly  two  millions,  and  was  rapidly  becoming  the 
center  of  the  Republic.  Perhaps  he  was  fortunate  in  selecting  Illinois  as 
his  home." — Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  p.  29. 


Mr.  Arnold  went  on  to  show  how  central  to  the  Union  Illinois 
had  become,  and  he  wrote  of  the  growing  importance  of  Illinois  geo- 
graphically, but  he  did  not  in  any  definite  way  undertake  to  answer 
his  question,  whether  it  was  well  for  Lincoln  to  have  lived  here,  other 
than  with  a  judicial  qualification.  "Perhaps  he  was  fortunate  in  select- 
ing Illinois  as  his  home." 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  time  has  come  for  a  more  positive  answer. 
I  believe  that  Lincoln  would  have  been  a  great  man  if  he  had  lived 
in  another  State,  but  that  Illinois  contributed  to  his  making  some  ele- 
ments which  were  of  particular  significance,  and  which  may  have  been 
indispensable  to  his  preparation  for  the  particular  work  to  which  Gk)d 
and  the  Nation  called  him. 

Two  Theories  of  the  Origin  of  Great  Men. 

There  are  two  opposing  theories  of  the  origin  of  great  men.  One 
of  them,  derived  from  Buckle  and  his  school,  attempts  to  account  for 
all  men,  both  individually  and  racially,  by  their  environment,  and  by 
the  conditions  of  the  times  in  which  they  live.  The  other,  of  whose 
conviction  Carlyle  is  the  indignant  spokesman*,  explains  not  the  man 
by  his  times,  but  his  times  by  the  man.  Emerson  agreed  with  Carlyle, 
and  went  even  farther.  Emerson  would  seem  to  say  that  the  Atlantic 
Ocean  was  there  because  nothing  smaller  would  have  answered  the 
purposes  of  Columbus.  Columbus  needed  a  large  earth  and  a  round 
earth  and  a  wide  ocean  to  express  what  was  inherent  in  himself.  The 
world  and  all  external  conditions  are  to  be  explained  by  the  man,  and 
not  the  man  by  his  world. 

Something  of  this  latter  theory  must  be  held  as  to  genius.  It  has 
its  own  laws.  It  produces  its  great  exponents  in  manner  and  form 
which  cannot  be  predicted-  It  is  impossible  to  explain  Robert  Burns 
without  Scotland,  but  Scotland  alone  does  not  explain  Burns.  Scot- 
land has  been  on  the  map  for  a  long  time,  and  still  there  is  but  one 
Robert  Burns.  Henry  Ward  Beecher  stood  at  the  foot  of  his  class 
in  Amherst  College.     Since  his  day  many  men  in  Amherst  College 


*  Thus,  with  hot  indignation,  did  Carlyle  reply  to  the  theory  that  great  men  are 
the  product  of  their  time  and  only  that :  "I  am  well  aware  that  In  their  days  hero- 
worship,  the  thing  I  call  hero-worship,  professes  to  have  gone  out  and  finally  ceased. 
This,  for  reasons  which  it  will  be  worth  while  some  time  to  inquire  into,  is  an  age 
that  as  it  were  denies  the  existence  of  great  men  ;  denies  the  desirability  of  great  men. 
Show  our  critics  a  great  man,  a  Luther,  for  example,  they  begin  to  what  they  call 
'account'  for  him  ;  not  to  worship  him,  but  to  talve  the  dimensions  of  him  and  bring 
him  out  to  bo  a  little  kind  of  man  !  He  was  the  'creature  of  the  time,'  they  say  ;  the 
time  called  him  forth,  the  time  did  everything,  he  nothing — but  whatever  the  little  critic 
could  have  done,  too  !  This  seems  to  me  but  mel.ancholy  work.  The  time  call  forth  ? 
Alas,  we  have  known  times  call  loudly  enough  for  their  great  man,  but  could  not  find 
him  when  he  was  called  !  He  was  not  there  ;  Providence  had  not  sent  him  ;  the  time 
calling  its  loudest,  had  to  go  down  to  confusion  and  wreck  because  he  would  not 
come   when    called. 

"For  if  we  will  think  of  it,  no  time  need  have  gone  to  ruin  could  it  have  found 
a  man  great  enough,  a  man  wise  and  good  enough  ;  wishing  to  discern  truly  what  the 
times  wanted,  valor  to  lead  it  on  the  right  road  thither;  these  are  the  salvation  of 
any  time.  But  I  liken  common  languid  times,  with  their  unbelief,  distress,  per- 
plexity, with  their  languid  doubting  characters  and  embarrassed  circumstances  Im- 
potently  crumbling — down  into  ever  worse  distress  toward  final  ruin — all  this  I 
liken  to  dry,  dead  fuel,  waiting  for  the  lightning  out  of  heaven  that  should  kindle  It. 
The  great  man,  with  his  free  force  out  of  God's  own  hand,  is  the  lightning.  The 
dry,  mouldering  sticks  are  supposed  to  have  called  him  forth  !  They  are  critics  of 
small  vision,  I  think,  who  cry:  'See  is  it  not  the  sticks  that  make  the  fire?'  No  sadder 
proof  can  be  given  by  a  man  of  his  own  littleness  than  disbelief  In  great  men." — 
Carlyle,  Heroes  and  Hero  Worship,  Chapter  1,  pp.  14-15. 


have  stood  at  the  foot  of  the  class,  and  it  is  not  known  that  that  envi- 
ronment has  produced  any  more  Beechers.  Socrates  was  the  product 
of  the  Hfe  and  spirit  of  Athens ;  but  Athens  has  long  since  given  up 
the  expectation  of  producing  by  wholesale  and  as  the  product  of  Athe- 
nian environment  men  of  Socratic  mind.  Of  each  of  these  men  we 
must  say  that  Drinkwater  says  first  of  other  great  leaders  and  then  of 
Lincoln,  "He  was  the  lord  of  his  event." 

But  no  great  man  can  be  understood  entirely  apart  from  his  envi- 
ronment, and  if  he  could,  it  would  be  unfair  both  to  him  and  to  his 
environment  thus  to  attempt  to  interpret  him. 

Lincoln  would  have  been  a  great  man  in  almost  any  environment. 
But  Gray  is  not  the  only  man  who  has  had  occasion  to  moralize  con- 
cerning the  "mute  inglorious  Miltons"  or  the  Cromwells  guiltless  of 
their  country's  blood,  and  guiltless  of  anything  else  good  or  bad  enough 
to  be  mentioned,  who  lived  and  died  in  environments  unsuited  to  their 
development. 

If  Lincoln  Had  Lived  in  Another  State. 

Illinois  has  a  right  to  remind  herself  of  those  elements  in  the 
character  of  Lincoln  which  were,  we  will  not  say  produced  or  created, 
but  developed,  by  his  Illinois  environment. 

Lincoln  was  born  in  the  very  heart  of  Kentucky.  It  was  the  claim 
of  the  La  Rue  County  when  its  representatives  asked  to  be  severed 
from  Hardin  and  to  become  a  separate  county,  that  La  Rue  County,  as 
measured  from  east  to  west,  and  from  the  northermost  point  in  the 
State  direct  to  the  southern  boundary,  was  the  precise  geographical 
center  of  the  State.  Its  centrality  gave  rise  to  some  semi-burlesque 
oratory  at  the  time,  and  this  probably  suggested  to  Proctor  Knott  a 
portion  of  his  noted  speech  which  many  years  later  did  so  much  for 
Duluth,  and  relieved  the  solemn  tedium  of  the  United  States  House 
of  Representatives  with  a  hearty  laugh. 

It  is  conceivable  that  Lincoln  might  have  lived  and  died  in  Ken- 
tucky. If  so,  it  is  not  certain  that  he  would  have  Hved  and  died  un- 
known. Men  from  his  own  county  rose  to  distinction,  and  he  might 
have  done  so.  But  it  is  certain  that  he  would  not  there  have  lived  in 
an  environment  such  as  evoked  in  him  those  qualities  that  made  him 
President- 
Indiana  has  its  honorable  place  in  the  development  of  Lincoln. 
We  cannot  spare  the  record  of  those  years  of  frontier  life,  nor  of 
its  proximity  to  that  highway  of  traffic  and  thought,  the  Ohio  River. 
Lincoln's  life-long  interest  in  river  navigation  was  prompted  by  his 
experience  in  Indiana.  His  strong  convictions  on  the  slavery  question 
were  influenced  in  no  unimportant  degree  by  his  voyage  to  New 
Orleans  and  his  visit  to  the  slave-market.  Even  if  we  discount  the 
statement  of  John  Hanks  that  Lincoln  then  declared  that  if  he  had  an 
opportunity  to  "hit  that  institution"  he  would  hit  it  hard,  we  know  from 
Lincoln  himself  that  the  sight  of  slaves,  chained  and  sold,  aroused  in 
him  emotions  of  enduring  significance;  and  this  we  must  credit  in  no 
small  part  to  his  life  in  Indiana. 


The  Notable  Influence  of  a  Short  Migration. 

I  have  sometimes  ventured  to  wonder  what  would  have  happened 
to  the  Lincoln  family  had  Thomas  Lincoln  continued  to  live  in  the 
home  on  Nolin  Creek  where  Abraham  Lincoln  was  born  until  the 
time  when  the  Lincoln  family  left  Kentucky.  He  would  not  have 
sailed  down  the  same  stream.  It  might  never  have  occurred  to  Thomas 
Lincoln  to  sail  down  the  river  at  all,  for  the  distance  by  Nolin  Creek 
and  Green  River  is  several  times  as  great.*  By  crossing  Muldraugh's 
Hill  and  living  on  Knob  Creek  he  was  within  much  shorter  distance 
of  the  Ohio  River,  and  he  reached  it  by  an  entirely  different  route. 
Had  he  continued  to  live  on  the  Nolin  Creek  farm,  and  had  he  taken 
his  long  voyage  from  there,  he  would  have  landed  much  farther  down 
the  Ohio,  at  a  point  where  the  confluence  of  the  rivers  had  already 
caused  considerable  settlements  to  be  made.  It  is  quite  possible  that 
he  might  have  floated  on  as  far  as  the  shores  of  Missouri  before  finding 
land  as  convenient  and  as  remote  from  settlement  as  he  found  in 
Spencer  County,  Indiana. 

If  Lincoln  had  grown  up  in  Hardin  County,  Kentucky,  he  might 
have  received  as  good  an  education  as  he  received  in  Spencer  County, 
Indiana ;  have  studied  law  and  been  admitted  to  the  bar ;  have  traveled 
the  circuit  and  entered  political  life,  and  possibly  have  been  elected 
to  Congress.  But  it  is  hardly  conceivable  that  Kentucky  alone  could 
have  made  him  the  man  that  he  was  when  he  left  Illinois. 

Had  the  Lincoln  family  remained  in  Spencer  County,  Indiana, 
Lincoln's  most  feasible  avenue  out  into  life  was  by  way  of  the  Ohio 
river.  That  might  have  given  him  valuable  contacts  with  life  farther 
south,  and  have  widened  his  influence  and  made  him  a  man  of  note 
in  some  southern  State.  But  that  would  not  have  done  for  him  what 
was  done  for  him  in  Illinois. 

Had  the  Lincoln  family  landed  farther  down  the  Ohio  and  made 
their  home,  as  Daniel  Boone  did  toward  the  end  of  his  life,  and  as  many 
other  Kentuckians  of  Lincoln's  day  were  doing,  near  the  Mississ- 
ippi river  and  within  the  borders  of  the  State  of  Missouri,  it  is  hardly 
possible  that  he  would  have  found  there  the  environment  which  would 
have  made  him  what  he  became. 

Social  conditions  in  rural  Kentucky,  Missouri  and  southern 
Indiana  were  not  notably  different  from  those  in  the  portion  of  Illinois 
where  Lincoln  made  his  home ;  but  Lincoln  found  at  New  Salem  and 


*  In  rrsponse  to  my  request,  the  Director  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey 
furnishes  ni(>  this  information  :  .,„,,,     ^  „,^ 

Prom  Knob  Creek  by  way  of  Rolling  Fork  and  Salt  River,  the  flat  boat  of  Thomas 
Lincoln  floated  42  miles  to  the  Ohio,  and  then,  assuming  that  he  landed  at  the  point 
in  Spencer  Countv  nearest  his  farm,  91  miles  down  the  Ohio  to  his  debarcation  near 
the  mouth  of  Anderson  River.  Had  he  embarked  on  Nolin  River,  at  its  point  nearest 
to  the  Lincoln  cabin  before  the  removal  from  Nolin  to  Knob  Creek,  he  would  have 
floated  down  Nolin  and  Green  Rivers  256  miles  to  reach  the  Ohio,  and  would  have 
been  46  miles,  by  the  Ohio  channel,  below  the  mouth  of  .\ndcrson  River. 

So  far  as  I  am  aware,  no  one  has  considered  the  inii)ortance  of  this  short  removal 
from  one  sterile  farm  to  another  in  the  same  county.  I  intend  at  some  future  time  to 
work  out  more  in  detail  the  effects  of  the  removal  of  the  Lincoln  family  from  Nolin 
Creek  to  Knob  Creek.  For  the  present  it  is  enough  to  state  that  it  appears  to  me 
that  while  the  distance  was  only  aliout  1.5  mil(>s,  and  within  the  same  county,  the 
effect  upon  the  life  of  Lincoln  was  very  great.  Had  the  family  remained  upon  Nolin 
Creek,  they  would  not  have  been  so  likely  to  undertake  a  voyage  of  2o6  miles  to  the 
Ohio  ;  and  had  they  done  so,  they  would  have  been  very  likely  not  to  locate  till  tney 
reached  Missouri. 


at  Springfield,  and  in  the  circuit  of  the  Eighth  Judicial  District,  some- 
thing which  he  did  not  find,  and  to  the  same  degree  was  not  very 
likely  to  have  found,  in  any  other  place  where  he  had  lived,  or  was 
likely  to  have  lived,  had  he  not  removed  to  Illinois. 

Remembering  that  wherever  he  lived  he  would  have  been  an 
honest  and  influential  man,  and  remembering  further,  that,  in  any 
environment  which  Thomas  Lincoln  would  probably  have  chosen,  con- 
ditions of  his  life  would  have  possessed  many  elements  in  common  with 
those  which  obtained  in  Illinois,  we  may  move  on  from  the  realm  of 
hypothesis  and  inquire  what  as  a  matter  of  fact  Illinois  did  for  Lin- 
coln that  assisted  in  the  development  of  his  latent  greatness- 

Illinois  Stimulated  Lincoln's  Love  of  Learning. 

Lincoln  found  in  Illinois  conditions  which  powerfully  stimulated 
his  ambition  to  learn.  He  had  received  valuable  instruction  in  Indiana. 
He  had  learned  to  read,  and  had  developed  a  strong  desire  to  read. 
He  had  read  the  Bible,  Pilgrim's  Progress,  a  History  of  the  United 
States,  Robinson  Crusoe,  Weems'  Life  of  Washington  and  the  Stat- 
utes of  Indiana.  To  this  excellent  list  he  had  added  a  few  other  books 
which  happened  to  be  Avithin  reach,  and  so  far  as  we  know  they  were 
all  remarkably  good  books.  But  he  himself  declared  that  "There  was 
absolutely  nothing  to  stimulate  ambition  to  learn."  He  learned,  not 
because  his  environment  was  favorable,  but  because  he  had  within 
him  the  determination  to  learn. 

In  Illinois,  Lincoln  found  himself  in  an  environment  which  greatly 
encouraged  his  love  of  learning.  New  Salem  may  seem  to  the  modern 
student  a  poor,  squalid  little  village,  no  one  of  whose  few  houses  cost 
much  more  than  one  hundred  dollars.  To  Lincoln  it  was  a  city.  It 
was  not  sufficiently  metropolitan  to  make  him  feel  like  a  stranger,  but 
it  had  within  it  and  passing  through  it  men  who  greatly  assisted  in 
making  Lincoln  what  he  would  not  have  been  likely  to  become  in 
Spencer  County,  Indiana.  There  he  met  Mentor  Graham,  the  school- 
master. The  "few  chicken-tracks"  which  Lincoln  was  able  to  make 
on  paper  when  he  arrived  became  a  clear,  strong  chirography.  He  had 
already  written  his  "Chronicles  of  Ruben,"  and  certain  treatises  on 
Temperance  and  on  Cruelty  to  Animals;  but  the  debating  society  of 
New  Salem  encouraged  him  to  write  on  many  great  themes,  and  gave 
him  an  appreciative  audience. 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  has  reminded  us  that  authors  need  a 
"mutual  admiration  society"  in  order  to  do  their  best  work.  Such  a 
society,  with  its  adjuncts  of  frank  and  robust  criticism  and  free  dis- 
cussion, Lincoln  found  at  New  Salem. 

There  he  studied  Kirkham's  Grammar  under  Mentor  Graham. 
There  he  learned  the  rudiments  of  surveying.  There  he  obtained  his 
copy  of  Blackstone  and  read  law.  It  was  not  simply  that  he  found 
books  in  slightly  larger  number  than  had  been  available  in  Indiana; 
he  found  an  atmosphere  that  encouraged  him  to  make  the  largest  pos- 
sible use  of  books. 


8 

A  College  Education  Not  Impossible. 

At  this  time  Lincoln  may  even  have  considered  the  possibiUty  of 
a  college  education.  Some  of  his  associates  at  New  Salem  were  stu- 
dents at  Illinois  College.  Lincoln  himself  became  possessed  of  a  book 
of  Greek  exercises.  He  probably  did  not  make  large  use  of  it ;  but 
the  fact  that  he  owned  it  shows  us  that  he  did  not  think  it  impossible 
that  he  might  learn  Greek.  After  his  removal  to  Springfield  he  engaged 
in  a  short  study  of  German.  Ann  Rutledge  desired  him  to  spend  at 
least  one  year  at  Illinois  College,  while  she  attended  its  academy.  I 
have  often  wondered  whether  a  college  course  would  have  made  or 
unmade  Lincoln.  It  might  not  have  done  either,  but  it  is  an  interesting 
question,  and  one  which  I  hope  sometime  to  give  a  conjectural  answer, 
whether  a  college  course,  such  as  Lincoln  might  have  obtained  at  IIU- 
nois  College  in  Jacksonville,  would  have  developed  his  mind  and 
character  more  directly  toward  his  success  in  life  than  did  his  years 
at  New  Salem.  He  could  probably  have  emerged  from  Illinois  College 
less  deeply  in  debt  that  he  was  when  he  left  New  Salem.  Financially 
and  geographically  a  college  course  was  not  impossible.  At  present  we 
will  not  ask  whether  it  would  have  been  better  for  him  and  the  world 
had  he  taken  it,  but  only  remind  ourselves  that  Lincoln  in  Illinois  was 
so  situated  that  a  college  course  was  one  of  the  possibilities. 

We  cannot  pursue  the  history  of  Lincoln's  six  years  at  New  Salem 
intelligently  and  confine  our  study  to  the  financial  adventures  of  the 
firm  of  Lincoln  and  Berry,  or  the  vicissitudes  of  Denton  Offutt  or  of 
Lincoln's  rough-and-tumble  encounters  with  the  Clary  Grove  boys. 
Lincoln  was  in  an  environment  that  gave  him  adequate  mental  stimu- 
lous  and  encouragement. 

Illinois  Favored  Lincoln's  Political  Ambition. 

Lincoln  found  in  Illinois  conditions  highly  favorable  to  his  ambi- 
tion to  become  a  political  leader.  He  had  hardly  landed  from  the 
return  voyage  of  the  flat  boat  which  had  conveyed  him  to  New  Orleans 
than  he  announced  himself  a  candidate  for  the  Legislature.  The  out- 
break of  the  Black  Hawk  War,  if  it  interrupted  for  a  few  weeks  his 
campaigning,  brought  him  a  popular  election  as  captain,  and  did  not 
diminish  his  political  ambition  or  his  prospect  of  success  in  that  field. 

Had  Abraham  Lincoln's  flat  boat  stuck,  not  on  Rutledge's  dam, 
but  let  us  say  at  the  foot  of  Long  Wharf,  Boston,  or  at  the  Battery 
in  New  York,  or  in  Mobile  or  New  Orleans,  and  had  he  made  any  one 
of  those  cities  his  home,  and  there  entered  political  life,  he  would  not 
have  found  conditions  as  favorable  either  for  his  immediate  entry,  or 
for  his  prospective  development,  as  he  found  in  Illinois. 

Illinois  offered  Lincoln  an  opportunity  to  enter  politics  almost  the 
moment  he  crossed  the  State  line.  After  a  year  spent  as  a  day  laborer 
in  the  vicinity  of  his  father's  home  near  Decatur,  he  made  his  second 
flat-boat  journey  to  New  Orleans,  and  by  good  fortune  his  boat  stuck 
on  the  dam  of  Rutledge's  mill  at  New  Salem.  Returning  from  New 
Orleans,  in  the  Summer  of  1831,  he  took  up  his  home  in  that  micro- 
scopic and  short-lived  village,  and  almost  immediately  proclaimed  him- 
self a  candidate  for  the  legislature. 


Illinois  politics  up  to  this  time  had  been  local  and  factional.  The 
State  was  a  Democratic  State ;  its  southern  part  was  settled  very  largely 
from  Kentucky,  and  its  northern  portion  as  yet  was  almost  uninhab- 
ited. National  politics  entered  the  State  with  the  popularity  of  Andrew 
Jackson,  and  took  a  strong  hold  on  the  life  and  enthusiasm  of  the 
voters  in  1840,  when  William  Henry  Harrison  was  a  candidate,  and 
the  watchwords  were  "Log  cabin  and  hard  cider."  It  was  not  neces- 
sary for  a  candidate  to  have  any  large  political  program  in  1832.  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  fitted  well  into  his  new  environment.  An  unlettered 
backwoodsman,  just  off  a  flat  boat,  could  poll  a  very  respectable  vote 
as  a  candidate  for  a  member  of  the  legislature  in  1832,  and  could  be 
elected  two  years  thereafter,  and  re-elected  regularly  once  in  two  years 
so  long  as  he  cared  to  announce  himself  a  candidate.  But  Abraham 
Lincoln  and  Illinois  politics  were  both  developing  through  that  period. 
Neither  he  nor  the  political  situation  remained  unmodified.  Illinois 
was  not  too  proud  to  receive  Abraham  Lincoln  as  a  member  of  her 
legislature  in  1834,  and  was  gratified  and  honored  to  have  a  share  in 
electing  him  President  in  1860.  Illinois  furnished  a  part  of  the  neces- 
sary environment  for  the  political  development  of  Lincoln. 

We  know  the  political  character  of  Illinois  at  the  time  when  Lin- 
coln became  a  resident  of  the  State.  It  was  Democratic,  and  its  De- 
mocracy was  divided  between  the  "whole-hog"  Democrats  and  those 
whose  devotion  to  Andrew  Jackson  carried  them  to  less  violent  ex- 
tremes. Lincoln's  personal  backgrounds  were  those  of  Jacksonian 
Democracy.  Thomas  Lincoln  was  a  Jackson  Democrat ;  John  Hanks, 
as  late  as  1860,  was  "an  old  Democrat  who  will  vote  for  Lincoln." 
Persons  who  heard  what  is  believed  to  have  been  Lincoln's  first  stump 
speech  at  Decatur  in  the  summer  of  1830  say  that  he  was  then  for 
Jackson  and  internal  improvements.  I  have  not  found  the  personal 
recollections  of  those  who  profess  to  have  heard  this  speech  very  clear 
or  consistent,  but  they  may  be  correct.  Andrew  Jackson  was  a  name  to 
capture  the  imagination,  and  he  may  at  that  time  have  been  Lincoln's 
hero  personally  if  not  politically.  Lamon  holds  that  Lincoln  at  the 
outset  was  "a  nominal  Jackson  man."  He  says  on  the  authority  of 
Dennis  Hanks  that  Lincoln  was  "Whiggish  but  not  a  Whig."  (Lamon : 
Life  of  Lincoln,  123,  126.) 

From  the  time  of  his  first  candidacy,  however,  there  is  nothing 
that  identifies  Lincoln  with  Jackson  Democracy.  His  earliest  announce- 
ment of  himself  as  a  candidate  for  the  legislature  did  not  name  the 
party  with  which  he  was  affiliated,  and  he  was  warmly  supported  by 
local  Democrats  as  well  as  Whigs.  But  as  soon  as  he  began  to  express 
any  principles  which  could  be  alligned  with  national  issues,  they  were 
unqualifiedly  those  of  the  Whigs.  He  may  have  continued  to  admire 
Andrew  Jackson,  but  he  became  immediately  a  disciple  of  Henry  Clay. 
(See  Nicolay  and  Hay,  1 :  102,  103;  Morse,  1 :  38.) 

In  this  development  his  personal  evolution  was  like  that  of  the 
State.  But  Lincoln's  own  development  was  in  advance  of  that  of  the 
State  as  a  whole,  and  qualified  him  to  lead  in  a  movement  that  in  time 
committed  Illinois  against  the  policy  of  the  extension  of  slavery. 


10 

The  Incidental  Values  of  Political  Mistakes. 

It  would  perhaps  be  but  fair  to  add  that  the  standards  which  ob- 
tained in  IlHnois  poUtics  were  the  more  favorable  to  the  advancement 
of  Lincoln  because  the  mistakes  of  politicians  in  his  day,  in  which  mis- 
takes Lincoln  participated,  were  so  largely  the  mistakes  of  the  whole 
body  of  the  people  and  of  Lincoln's  constituents,  that  a  public  official 
was  not  too  summarily  condemned  to  oblivion  for  his  errors  of  judg- 
ment. Governor  Ford  comments  on  this  matter  with  characteristic 
severity,  condemning  the  "Long  Nine"  whose  log-rolling  in  connection 
with  the  removal  of  the  Capital  from  Vandalia  to  Springfield  cost  the 
State,  as  he  maintained,  more  than  the  value  of  all  the  real  estate  in  the 
vicinity  of  Springfield,  and  he  records  the  names  of  those  members 
of  the  House  of  Representatives  who  voted  for  the  disastrous  "Inter- 
nal improvement  system."  He  was  especially  indignant  when  he  con- 
sidered how  many  of  these  men.  who,  as  he  believed,  ought  to  have 
been  repudiated  by  the  people,  v\-ere  continued  in  ofifice.  Ninian  W. 
Edwards  and  others  were  "since  often  elected  or  appointed  to  other 
offtces,  and  are  yet  all  of  them  popular  men.  .  .  .  Dement  has  been 
twice  appointed  Receiver  of  Public  ]\Ioneys.  .  .  .  Shields  to  be 
Auditor,  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court,  Commissioner  of  the  General 
Land  Office,  and  Brigadier  General  in  the  Mexican  War.  .  .  .  Lin- 
coln was  several  times  elected  to  the  Legislature  and  finally  to  Con- 
gress ;  and  Douglas,  Smith  and  McClernand  have  been  three  times 
elected  to  Congress,  and  Douglas  to  the  L'nited  States  Senate.  Being 
all  of  them  spared  monuments  of  popular  wrath,  evincing  how  safe 
it  is  to  be  a  politician,  and  how  disastrous  it  may  be  to  the  country  to 
keep  along  with  the  present  fervor  of  the  people." — History  of  Illinois, 
pp.  195,   196. 

We  need  not  claim  for  Lincoln  in  these  matters  wisdom  superior 
to  that  of  his  associates,  but  may  remind  ourselves  that  his  errors  of 
judgment  were  not  only  shared  by  his  associates  in  office,  but  that  their 
errors  did  not  prevent  his  repeated  re-election,  much  to  the  disgust  of 
Governor  Ford,  who  counted  him  one  of  the  "spared  monuments  of 
popular  wrath." 

The  historian  of  the  future  is  certain  to  set  enhanced  value  upon 
Governor  Ford's  History  of  Illinois.  The  future  student  is  not  likely 
to  condemn  with  less  severity  than  Governor  Ford  either  the  log-rolling 
of  early  Illinois  politics  or  the  folly  of  the  financial  methods  by  which 
it  was  undertaken  to  support  the  State  banks  and  the  Internal  Improve- 
ment system  which  ended  with  the  financial  crash  of  1837.  In  the 
main  Governor  Ford  was  right.  But  Governor  Ford  lacked  perspec- 
tive. He  was  not  strictly  accurate  in  describing  Lincoln  and  his  asso- 
ciates as  "spared  monuments  of  popular  wrath."  There  ought  to  have 
been  more  wrath  than  there  was.  The  men  who  were  responsible  for 
those  measures  in  the  Legislature  fairly  represented  the  will  and  the 
wisdom  or  unwisdom  of  their  constituents.  The  law-makers  and  the 
men  who  elected  them  to  make  laws  were  involved  in  the  same  attempts 
to  create  values  out  of  things  that  had  no  value.  The  long  list  which 
Governor  Ford  gives  us  of  men  who  were  responsible  for  the  financial 


11 

evils  of  their  time  and  who  nevertheless  were  thereafter  elected  and 
re-elected  to  office  is  its  own  answer.  These  men  were  as  wise  as  their 
constituents,  and  not  much  wiser.  Illinois  had  to  learn  from  bitter 
experience,  and  Lincoln  was  one  of  the  men  who  had  his  share  in  the 
education  which  the  whole  State  was  compelled  to  imdergo. 

Lake  and  River  Transportation. 

Lincoln  became  a  factor  in  Illinois  life  just  at  the  time  when  the 
question  of  transportation  was  becoming  most  acute.  Whatever  sur- 
plus Illinois  produced  in  the  early  days,  was  floated  down  the  Mississ- 
ippi, whose  commercial  outlet  was  New  Orleans ;  but  there  were  other 
agricultural  states  tributary  to  the  Mississippi,  and  the  wharves  of 
New  Orleans  were  piled  high  in  time  with  unmarketable  produce.  It 
was  less  easy  to  float  goods  upstream  than  down,  and  New  Orleans 
w^as  not  a  manufacturing  city.  The  goods  which  Illinois  required  for 
her  own  use  were  largely  produced  in  Philadelphia  or  New  York.  The 
accounts  and  bills  payable  of  Illinois  merchants  tended  to  accumulate 
in  New  York ;  the  credits  were  in  Nev/  Orleans.  The  money  in  circu- 
lation was  largely  issued  by  wildcat  banks,  and  afforded  no  suitable 
basis  of  exchange.  If  this  situation  went  on  permanently,  Illinois 
could  have  no  great  commercial  future.  Her  banking  was  principally 
done  in  St.  Louis.  In  1831,  for  the  first  time,  goods  were  imported 
from  the  East  to  St.  Louis  by  way  of  Chicago  at  one-third  less  cost 
than  by  New  Orleans.  That  fact  did  more  than  we  can  now  imagine 
to  compel  the  unification  of  Illinois.  Lake  Michigan  became  a  neces- 
sity to  Menard  and  Sangamon  Counties,  as  certainly  as  to  Cook  County 
and  the  northern  end  of  the  State.  We  remember  the  disastrous  experi- 
ments in  public  improvements  by  means  of  which  creeks  were  +o  have 
become  rivers  and  canals  were  to  have  connected  the  heads  of  naviga- 
tion through  the  State.  Let  us  not  forget  that  these  conditions  with 
all  their  blundering  and  bankruptcy  v/ere  potent  in  making  Illinois  a 
commercial  unit  and  in  securing  her  a  place  of  influence  in  the  com- 
mercial life  of  the  nation. 

Illinois  and  the  Unification  of  the  Nation. 

The  relation  of  Illinois  to  the  unification  of  the  nation  was  no 
accident.  Governor  Thomas  Ford  died  in  1850,  leaving  the  manu- 
script of  his  History  of  Illinois  to  be  published  after  his  decease.  In 
that  work  he  clearly  set  forth  the  aim  of  Hon.  Nathaniel  Pope,  delegate 
in  Congress  from  the  Territory  of  Illinois,  when,  in  January,  1818,  he 
on  his  own  responsibility  amended  the  proposal  for  the  admission  of 
Illinois  to  the  Union  by  moving  her  boundary  north  from  the  southern 
extremity  of  Lake  Michigan  to  the  line  of  42°  30'  so  as  to  include 
within  the  State  fourteen  additional  counties  and  the  port  of  Chicago. 
Governor  Ford  said : 

"It  was  known  that  in  all  confederated  republics  there  was  danger 
of  dissolution  .  .  .  Illinois  had  a  coast  of  150  miles  on  the  Ohio 
river,  and  nearly  as  much  on  the  Wabash ;  the  Mississippi  was  its 
western  boundary  for  the  whole  length  of  the  State ;  the  commerce  of 
all  the  western  country  was  to  pass  by  its  shores,  and  would  necessarily 


LIBRARIf 

UNIVERSITY  OF  !LUN0«9 


12 

come  to  a  focus  at  the  movith  of  the  Ohio,  at  a  point  within  this  State, 
and  within  the  control  of  Illinois,  if,  the  Union  being  dissolved,  she 
should  see  proper  to  control  it.  It  was  foreseen  that  none  of  the  great 
States  in  the  West  could  venture  to  aid  in  dissolving  the  Union,  with- 
out cultivating  a  State  situate  in  such  a  central  and  commanding  posi- 
tion. What  then  was  the  duty  of  the  national  government?  Illinois 
was  certain  to  be  a  great  State  with  any  boundaries  which  that  govern- 
ment could  give.  ...  If  left  entirely  upon  the  waters  of  these  great 
rivers,  it  was  plain  that,  in  case  of  threatened  disruption,  the  interest 
of  the  new  State  would  be  to  join  a  southern  and  western  confederacy. 
But  if  a  large  portion  of  it  could  be  made  dependent  upon  the  com- 
merce and  navigation  of  the  great  northern  lakes,  connected  as  they 
are  with  the  eastern  States,  a  rival  interest  would  be  created,  to  check 
the  wish  for  a  western  and  southern  confederac3^  It  therefore  became 
the  duty  of  the  national  government,  not  only  to  make  Illinois  strong, 
but  to  raise  an  interest  inclining  and  binding  her  to  the  eastern  and 
northern  portions  of  the  Union.  This  could  be  done  only  through  an 
interest  in  the  lakes.  At  that  time  the  commerce  on  the  lakes  was 
small,  but  its  increase  was  confidently  expected,  and  indeed  it  has 
exceeded  all  expectations  and  is  still  in  its  infancy.  To  accomplish 
this  object  effectually,  it  was  not  only  necessary  to  give  to  Illinois  the 
port  of  Chicago,  and  a  route  for  the  canal,  but  a  considerable  coast  on 
Lake  Michigan,  with  a  country  back  of  it  sufficiently  extensive  to  con- 
tain a  population  capable  of  exercising  a  decided  influence  upon  the 
councils  of  the  State."- — Ford's  History  of  Illinois,  22-23. 

If  Governor  Ford  had  written  these  words  after  the  Civil  War, 
we  might  have  suspected  him  of  attributing  to  Judge  Pope  more  of 
political  foresight  than  either  he  or  Judge  Pope  really  possessed.  But 
he  wrote  before  1850,  and  we  have  no  reason  to  doubt  that  this  remark- 
ably clear  view  of  the  influence  of  Illinois  as  a  State  that  might  bind 
together  the  expanding  Union  was  really  possessed  by  Judge  Pope 
when  he  secured  for  the  new  State  her  fourteen  additional  counties, 
including  the  port  of  Chicago,  and  keenly  appreciated  by  Governor 
Ford  in  his  stern  opposition*  to  the  proposals  of  Wisconsin  that  the 
northern  counties  of  Illinois  should  be  restored  to  the  newer  State. 

The  Courts  of  Illinois  Developed  Lincoln. 

Illinois  offered  to  Lincoln  through  her  Circuit  Courts  an  oppor- 
tunity of  widening  his  acquaintance  and  influence  and  also  of  meeting 
in  political  and  legal  relations  a  circle  of  men  admirably  suited  to  his 
intellectual  development.  The  lawyers  of  early  Illinois  represer'te/l 
widely  divergent  types.     There  were  frontier  shysters  of  small  ability 


•  The  fight  of  Wisconsin  was  very  strong  in  Ford's  administration.  Not  only  so,  but 
the  northern  counties  of  Illinois  were  inclined  to  thinl<  they  had  more  in  common  with 
Wisconsin  than  with  E^rypt.  Thore  was  more  than  one  potition  frcmi  the  conntios 
themselves  or  from  some  party  within  ther  asking  that  thoy  he  severed  from  Illinois  and 
joini'd  to  the  State  to  the  north.  Governor  Ford's  argumcmt  in  refutation  of  the  claim 
of  Wisconsin  is  given  in  extenso  in  his  Historii  and  is  a  document  of  permanent 
interest. 

A  proposal  to  separate  northern  Illinois  from  southern  Illinois  is  at  this  moment 
pending  before  the  General  Assembly.  Those  who  propose  such  a  sundering  of  what 
God  hath  joined  will  find  instructive  reading  in  some  of  the  early  literature  of  this 
State. 


13 

and  less  legal  learning,  but  there  also  were  men  of  large  native  ability, 
whose  wits  were  sharpened  by  much  experience.  Lincoln's  practice 
soon  brought  him  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  Illinois,  where  he  had 
to  plead  before  judges  of  learning  and  high  standing.  The  courts  of 
Illinois  were  not  essentially  different  from  those  of  Indiana  and  I^.Iis- 
souri  in  the  same  period.  Any  of  the  frontier  States  then  rapidly 
filling  could  have  furnished  him  an  arena  for  his  legal  skill;  but  the 
skill  which  Lincoln  developed  and  the  acquaintance  which  he  formed 
in  Illinois  had  their  relation  to  a  political  situation  which  no  other 
State  could  quite  have  duplicated.  Mr.  Arnold  relates  an  interesting 
incident  which  occurred  after  Mr.  Lincoln  was  elected  President.  He 
was  asked  to  appoint  a  man  named  Butterfield  to  a  position  in  the 
Army.  This  man  Butterfield  was  the  son  of  Justin  Butterfield,  who  in 
1849  had  secured  an  appointment  to  the  Land  Office,  a  position  greatly 
desired  by  Lincoln  at  the  close  of  his  term  in  Congress.     Arnold  says : 

When  the  application  was  presented,  the  President  paused,  and  after 
a  moment's  silence,  said:  "Mr.  Justin  Butterfield  once  obtained  an  appoint- 
ment I  very  much  wanted,  and  in  which  my  friends  believed  I  could  have 
been  useful,  and  to  which  they  thought  I  was  fairly  entitled,  and  I  have 
hardly  ever  felt  so  bad  at  any  failure  in  my  life;  but  I  am  glad  of  an  oppor- 
tunity of  doing  a  service  to  his  son."  And  he  made  an  order  for  his  commis- 
sion. He  then  spoke  of  the  offer  made  to  him  of  the  governorship  of  Oregon. 
To  which  the  reply  was  made:  "How  fortunate  that  you  declined.  If  you 
had  gone  to  Oregon,  you  might  have  come  back  as  Senator,  but  you  never 
would  have  been  President." — Life  of  Ahraham  Lincoln,  81. 

Lincoln  assented  to  the  foregoing  and  said  he  had  always  been  a 
fatalist,  believing  with  Hamlet  in  the  Divinity  that  shapes  our  ends. 

Oregon  could  have  made  Lincoln  a  Senator,  but  it  is  not  certain 
that  any  other  State  than  Illinois  could  have  made  him  President.  He 
needed  essentially  the  conditions  which  he  found  in  Illinois  to  develop 
the  qualities  which  were  inherent  in  him;  and  he  needed  a  political 
situation  such  as  existed  in  Illinois  to  make  him  at  the  opportune  time 
the  President  of  the  United  States.  We  can  never  be  too  certain  con- 
cerning the  negative  implications  of  a  study  like  this.  We  can  never 
be  quite  sure  what  another  State  might  have  done.  We  are  quite 
certain  that  no  other  State,  then  in  the  L^ion,  could  have  furnished 
all  the  conditions  which  Illinois  supplied  and  which  were  so  important 
both  in  the  evolution  of  Lincoln  and  in  his  elevation. 

Illinois  the  National  Keystone. 

Pennsylvania  is  proud  of  her  soubriquet,  "the  Keystone  state." 
Had  that  name  not  been  pre-empted  when  the  Union  formed  a  smaller 
arch,  it  should  have  been  reserved  for  Illinois.  Both  the  shape  and 
geographical  position  of  Illinois  entitle  her  to  that  designation.  Her 
superficial  area  extends  from  the  lakes  to  the  confluence  of  the  great 
rivers,  and  hence  virtually  from  the  northern  boundary  of  the  nation 
to  Mason  and  Dixon's  Line.  In  the  beginning  it  shared  with  Ken- 
tucky and  Missouri  the  status  of  a  southern  State,  but  Lincoln  saw 
and  had  some  reason  to  fear  the  development  of  its  northern  and  larger 
portion.  It  was  an  ominous  sign  for  Lincoln  when  he  who  had  done 
so  much  for  the  election  of  Zachary  Taylor  as  President,  was  set  aside 


14 

in  his  application  for  the  Land  Office  and  that  position  was  given  to 
Mr.  Justin  Butterfield  of  Chicago.*  Lincoln  had  good  reason  to  fear 
the  growth  of  Chicago  and  of  northern  Illinois.  As  late  as  the  State 
Convention  of  the  Republican  party  at  Decatur  in  1860,  the  northern 
part  of  Illinois  was  for  Seward.  Not  even  the  sight  of  John  Hanks' 
two  fence  rails  wholly  convinced  the  politicians  of  the  Chicago  area 
that  Lincoln  was  the  right  man  for  President.  His  solidifying  of  his 
own  State  was  an  important  step  toward  the  solidifying  of  the  nation. 

The  River  and  Harbor  Convention. 

So  far  as  I  am  aware  no  biographer  of  Lincoln  has  ever  heard  of 
the  River  and  Harbor  Convention  of  1847.  I  do  not  find  it  mentioned 
by  Nicolay  and  Hay,  by  Arnold,  by  Morse,  by  Miss  Tarbell,  or  by  any 
other  biographer  of  Lincoln.  But  it  was  that  which  first  brought 
Lincoln  to  Chicago.  The  Chicago  papers,  truthful  then  as  always, 
stated  that  this  was  the  first  visit  of  the  Honorable  Abraham  Lincoln 
to  the  "commercial  emporium  of  the  State."*  He  was  more  welcome 
than  he  might  have  been  at  some  earlier  periods  in  his  career.  In  the 
first  place  he  was  the  only  Whig  member  of  Congress  from  Illinois, 
was  just  elected  and  had  not  yet  taken  his  seat.  In  the  second  place 
he  was  thoroughly  committed  to  the  policy  of  developing  inland  waters 
and  of  connecting  the  lakes  with  the  rivers.  It  will  some  time  become 
the  duty  of  the  historian  to  show  what  that  convention  did  for  Abra- 
ham Lincoln.  The  presiding  officer  of  that  convention  was  Edward 
Bates  of  Missouri.  Lincoln  probably  did  not  know  it  at  the  time,  but 
then  and  there  he  probably  formed  the  impression  which  later  made 
Bates  a  member  of  his  Cabinet.  It  was  there  that  Lincoln  first  heard 
Horace  Greeley,  and  Greeley  heard  Lincoln  in  a  short  and  tactful 
speech.  Greeley  did  not  know  it,  but  he  was  forming  an  impression  of 
Lincoln,  which  thirteen  years  later  was  to  influence  his  judgment  in 
accepting  Lincoln  as  the  compromise  candidate  who  could  not  only 
defeat  Seward  in  the  Convention,  but  defeat  the  Democratic  nominee  in 
the  election  following.  What  Lincoln  came  to  learn  of  the  qualities 
essential  to  unifying  his  own  State  went  far  toward  making  him  capable 
of  unifying  the  nation. 


*  Justin  ButtcrfiPld  was  born  in  Keone,  N.  H.,  in  1790.  He  studied  at  Williams 
College,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  at  Watertown,  N.  Y.,  in  1812.  After  some  years 
of  practice  in  New  Yorlc  state  be  removed  to  New  Orleans,  and  in  1835  to  Chicago. 
He  soon  attained  high  rank  in  his  profession.  In  1841  he  was  appointed  by  President 
Harrison  United  States  District  Attorney.  In  1849  he  was  appointed  by  President 
Taylor  Commissioner  of  the  General  Land  Office.  He  was  logical  and  resourceful,  and 
many  stories  are  told  of  his  quiclv  wit.     He  died  October  25.  18.35. 

Mr.  Butterfield  probably  owed  his  appointment  over  Mr.  Lincoln  to  the  influence 
of  Daniel  Webster,  who  was  his  personal  friend,  and  also  to  the  growing  importance 
of  the  northern  portion  of  the  State  of  Illinois.  Taylor  was,  according  to  his  own 
pre-election  statement,  "a  Whig,  but  not  an  ultra-Whig."  The  Whig  interests  in 
Illinois  could  better  afford  to  overlook  the  claims  of  a  down-state  ex-congressman  than 
those  of  a  strongly  backed  representative  from  the  Whig  end  of  the  State. 


*  ".\braham  Lincoln,  the  only  Whig  representative  to  Congress  from  this  State, 
we  are  happy  to  see  in  attendance  upon  the  Convention.  This  is  his  first  visit  to  the 
commercial  emporium  of  the  State,  and  we  have  no  doubt  his  first  visit  will  impress 
him  more  deeply,  if  possible,  with  the  importance,  and  inspire  a  higher  zeal  for  the 
great  inti^rest  iif  river-and-harbor  iinproveincnts.  We  expect  much  from  him  ns  an 
representative  in  Congress,  and  we  have  no  doubt  our  expectations  will  be  more  than 
realized,  for  never  was  reliance  placed  in  a  nobler  heart  and  a  sounder  judgment. 
We  know  the  banner  he  bears  will  never  be  soiled." — CJikaf/o  .Journal,  July  6,   1847. 


15 

The  Chicago  Journal  in  an  indignant  editorial  inquired  whether 
of  the  River  and  Harbor  bill,  on  August  3,  1846,  by  President  James 
K.  Polk,  that  bill  had  contained  appropriations  of  $15,000  for  the 
Harbor  of  Buffalo,  $20,000  for  Cleveland,  $40,000  for  the  St.  Clair 
flats,  $80,000  for  Milwaukee,  Racine,  Chicago  and  other  nearby  ports, 
and  sums  for  other  lake  harbors.  President  Polk  afflrmed  that  as  these 
ports  were  not  harbors  of  vessels  used  in  international  trade,  "It  would 
seem  the  dictate  of  wisdom  under  such  circumstances  to  husband  our 
means,  and  not  waste  them  on  comparatively  unimportant  objects." 

The  Chicago  Journal  in  an  indignant  editorial  inquired  whether 
this  same  James  K.  Polk  was  not  squandering  millions  upon  an  inva- 
sion of  Mexico  for  the  sake  of  the  extension  of  slavery?  Was  he  not 
buying  steamboats  at  exorbitant  prices  for  use  in  the  transportation 
of  troops  and  supplies  to  Mexico,  and  leaving  our  legitimate  commerce 
on  the  lakes  unprotected,  with  lives  liable  to  be  lost  for  lack  of  safe 
harbors,  and  great  territory  of  our  own  undeveloped  while  he  sought 
to  acquire  other  territory  by  bloody  means  and  for  ignoble  ends? 
What  an  insult  to  the  intelligence  of  the  nation  for  him  to  declare  that 
these  lake  harbors  were  "comparatively  unimportant  objects !" 

A  great  convention  assembled  in  Chicago  on  July  5,  1847,  to  pro- 
test against  James  K.  Polk  and  all  his  works,  to  advance  the  interests 
of  the  lake  harbors,  and  incidentally  to  promote  the  welfare  of  the 
Whig  party.  The  significance  of  that  convention  has  never  been  ade- 
quately understood.* 

The  attendance  upon  the  River  and  Plarbor  Convention  was  not 
limited  to  residents  of  lake  cities.  There  were  seven  delegates  from 
Connecticut,  one  from  Florida,  two  from  Georgia,  twelve  from  Iowa, 
two  from  Kentucky,  two  from  Maine,  twenty-eight  from  Massachu- 
setts, forty-five  from  Missouri,  two  from  New  Hampshire,  eight  from 
New  Jersey,  twenty-seven  from  Pennsylvania,  three  from  Rhode 
Island,  one  from  South  Carolina.  I  have  not  tried  to  count  the  long 
lists  from  New  York,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan  and  Wiscon- 
sin. These  are  all  located  by  counties,  and  show  a  widespread  repre- 
sentation from  all  parts  of  these  States.  The  Convention  was  felt  to 
be  of  vast  economic  interest,  and  was  by  no  means  lacking  in  political 
importance.  Theoretically  it  was  assembled  for  the  consideration  of 
internal  improvements ;  but  in  addition  to  this  it  was  convened  for  the 
sake  of  opposing  James  K.  Polk  and  all  his  political  associations. 

Daniel  Webster,  Henry  Clay,  Thomas  H.  Benton,  Lewis  Cass 
and  other  national  leaders  all  were  invited,  and  responded  in  letters, 
that  of  Webster  especially  being  a  document  of  considerable  size  and 
importance.  Anson  Burlingame  headed  the  Massachusetts  delegation, 
and  Ohio  followed  the  lead  of  Thomas  Corwin. 

Horace  Greeley  was  there,  and  he  wrote  up  the  convention  for 
the  New  York  Tribune,  and  ever  afterward  advised  young  men  to 
"Go  West,  and  grow  up  with  the  country."    Thurlow  Weed  reported 


*  I  am   indebted  to  Mr.   James  Shaw,  of  Aurora,  for  first  calling  my  attention  to 
the  significance  of  this  convention. 


16 

it  in  full  for  the  Albany  Journal,  and  gave  an  interesting  account  of 
his  own  journey  around  the  lakes  on  "the  magnificent  steamer, 
Empire." 

The  political  aspects  of  the  convention  are  suggested  by  the  fact 
that  Lev^is  Cass  of  Michigan,  which  State  might  have  benefited  by 
river  and  harbor  improvements,  remained  away  and  sent  a  very  dis- 
tant note  of  regret,  while  Daniel  Webster,  from  Massachusetts,  in  a 
long  letter  read  at  the  convention,  came  out  unqualifiedly  for  all  that 
the  convention  stood  for.  Cass  wanted  to  be  President,  and  greatly 
needed  the  vote  of  the  slave  States ;  Webster's  position  was,  of  course, 
that  of  a  politician  who  greatly  desired  to  link  the  political  and  eco- 
nomic future  of  the  new  States  with  the  North  and  East. 

David  Dudley  Field  was  present  to  speak  for  the  administration. 
He  did  it  with  shrewdness ;  Greeley  gives  the  gist  of  his  address.  The 
convention  did  not  treat  him  any  too  courteously ;  and  Lincoln  followed 
with  his  one  speech,  a  tactful  one,  of  which  we  have  no  report,  but 
one  that  appears  to  have  stood  for  fair  play  while  being  ardently  in 
favor  of  the  whole  plan  of  internal  improvements.  The  convention 
at  its  next  session  apologized  to  Mr.  Field  for  the  uncivil  treatment 
he  had  received,  but  did  not  alter  its  program  or  change  its  convictions 
on  account  of  this  apology  for  bad  manners. 

*  The  River  and  Harbor  Convention  of  1847  put  Chicago  upon  the 
nation's  map.  It  did  more  than  any  previous  or  subsequent  assembly 
to  link  the  fortunes  of  the  great  State  of  Illinois  with  the  North  and 
East. 

It  must  have  been  a  very  illuminating  event  to  Lincoln.  It  was 
his  first  visit  to  Chicago,  his  first  view  of  the  great  lakes.*  It  was  his 
first  important  reminder  that,  while  he  was  elected  from  Central  Illi- 
nois, he,  as  the  only  Whig  member  of  Congress  from  the  State,  must 
find  his  political  support  thereafter  largely  in  the  newer  portion  of 
the  State  where  the  Whigs  were  more  largely  in  control.  It  must  have 
reminded  him,  and  he  was  soon  to  be  rudely  reminded  again,  that 
Chicago,  and  Northern  Illinois  with  her,  was  thenceforth  to  be  reck- 
oned with  as  an  important  political  as  well  as  economic  factor.  He 
had  hoped  to  efifect  the  unity  of  Illinois  by  a  canal  connecting  the  lakes 
with  the  rivers ;  whether  this  ever  was  accomplished  or  not,  the  whole 
future  of  Illinois,  central  and  southern  as  M^ell  as  northern,  was  tied 
up  with  Chicago,  and  through  Chicago  with  the  East  and  North.  Illi- 
nois, with  her  whole  western  boundary  washed  by  the  Mississippi,  her 
southern  border  hemmed  in  by  the  Ohio,  and  a  large  part  of  her  east- 
ern border  determined  by  the  Wabash,  and  all  of  these  streams  bearing 
their  cargoes  through  slave  territory  to  New  Orleans,  was  an  indivis- 
ible political  and  economic  unit,  bound  by  Chicago  and  the  great  lakes 
to  New  York  and  New  England,  Ohio  and  Pennsylvania. 


*  My  good  friends,  Mr.  J.  Seymour  Currcy,  of  Evanaton,  and  Prof.  Julius  B.  Olson, 
of  the  State  University  of  Wisconsin,  are  of  opinion  that  Lincoln  made  two  earlier  visits 
to  ChieaRo  ;  niid  they  may  l>e  correct.  To  me,  however,  the  evidence  does  not  appear 
entirely  conclusive;  and  in  any  event,  those  earlier  visits,  if  they  occurred,  were  with- 
out important  sif^nilicance.  I'rof.  Olson's  interestins  study  is  r>ubiished  by  the  Wis- 
consin Historical  Society.  Vol.  4,  p.  44,  1920,  and  Mr.  Currev's  sufigestive  article  is  in 
the  Journal  of  the  Illinois  State  Historical  Sociotv,  Vol.  12,  No.  3,  Oct.,  1919,  p.  412. 


17 

Illinois  and  Slavery. 

In  1808,  one  year  before  the  birth  of  Lincoln,  the  slave  trade 
ceased  by  constitutional  limitation.  If  slavery  itself  could  have  gone 
out  with  the  importation  of  slaves,  the  history  of  Lincoln  and  our 
nation  had  been  quite  otherwise.  It  was  not  so,  and  in  1820  came  the 
Missouri  Compromise.  By  this  act  Missouri  was  admitted  to  the 
Union  as  a  slave  State,  and  slavery  which  before  that  time  had  been 
held  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  was  extended  for  north  on  the 
west  side  of  the  Mississippi  river;  but  by  the  agreement  then  entered 
upon,  States  thereafter  to  be  admitted  into  the  Union  were  to  come 
in  free  unless  they  lay  south  of  the  parallel  of  36  degrees  and  30  min- 
utes north  longitude,  the  southern  bovmdary  of  Missouri.  For  thirty- 
four  years  that  Compromise  had  stood,  but  thirty- four  years  is  a  long 
time,  and  slavery  had  been  gaining  ground.  The  Louisiana  purchase 
had  brought  in  material  for  a  number  of  new  slave  states  and  the 
Mexican  War  had  brought  in  others.  California  had  indeed  entered 
the  Union  as  a  free  State,  but  that  was  not  the  fault  of  the  slave- 
holding  element  in  Congress  or  even  of  the  then  occupant  of  the 
White  House. 

The  removal  of  the  Capital  of  the  United  States  from  Washington 
and  later  from  Philadelphia  to  a  small  district  taken  from  and  bounded 
by  the  two  slave  States  of  Maryland  and  Virginia  did  much  to 
strengthen  slavery  socially  and  politically.  In  1854  the  Kansas- 
Nebraska  Bill  repealed  the  Missouri  Compromise,  started  Kansas  to 
bleeding,  set  John  Brown's  soul  and  body  to  marching  in  the  path 
that  led  to  the  gallows,  and  called  Abraham  Lincoln  back  into  politics, 
from  which  he  had  retired  in  1848. 

Abraham  Lincoln  could  not  remember  the  time  when  he  had  not 
believed  slavery  to  be  wrong,  but  he  found  no  occasion  in  his  early 
political  life  to  make  slavery  a  direct  issue.  It  was  well  for  him  and 
the  nation  that  his  home  was  in  a  State  where  he  had  to  define  his  own 
position  on  the  slavery  question  in  terms  both  ethical  and  legal. 

Illinois  as  a  part  of  the  Northwest  Territory  was  forever  dedi- 
cated as  a  shrine  of  freedom ;  but  Illinois  as  a  State  settled  from  Ken- 
tucky permitted  a  good  many  slaves  to  be  held  by  families  who  moved 
into  the  State  and  brought  their  negroes  with  them.  Illinois  had  a 
"Black  Code"  of  disgraceful  and  revolting  severity.  On  March  3. 
1837,  Abraham  Lincoln  and  Dan  Stone,  representatives  from  the 
County  of  Sangamon,  filed  their  protest  against  resolutions  adopted 
on  the  preceding  day  by  their  fellow  members  of  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives, violently  denouncing  abolitionists  and  expressing  strong 
pro-slavery  sympathies.  This  protest  of  Lincoln  and  Stone  stated  that 
its  two  signers,  "believe  that  the  institution  of  slavery  is  founded  on 
both  injustice  and  bad  policy."  In  1841  the  sale  of  a  negro  girl  named 
Nancy,  resulted  in  the  case  of  Bailey  vs.  Cromwell,  which  was  carried 
to  the  Supreme  Court  of  Illinois.  There  Lincoln  contended  that  this 
slave  girl  was  free  by  virtue  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  which  prohibited 
slavery  in  the  Northwest  Territory.     This  case  which  Lincoln  argued 


18 

when  he  was  thirty-two  years  of  age,  compelled  him  to  consider  slavery 
both  in  its  legal  and  its  moral  aspects.  Such  an  issue  could  hardly 
have  risen,  except  in  Illinois  or  Indiana  or  Ohio.* 

The  Repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise. 

The  leader  in  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  Stephen 
Arnold  Douglas,  Senator  from  Illinois,  and  at  that  time  chairman  of  the 
Senate  Committee  on  Territories.  Whether  he  was  the  real  author  of 
the  measure  is  hotly  disputed.  The  most  careful  study  of  this  question 
seems  to  me  to  be  that  of  Prof.  P.  Orman  Ray,  who,  after  a  careful 
analysis  of  the  material  available,  supports  the  view  of  Colonel  John 
A.  Parker,  in  his  pamphlet,  "The  Secret  History  of  the  Kansas- 
Nebraska  Bill",  and  derives  the  movement  for  the  repeal  to  the  fac- 
tional strife  in  Missouri  between  Thomas  Hart  Benton  and  David  R. 
Atchison.  Atchison,  as  Professor  Ray  believes,  was  the  real  author  of 
the  measure;  and  his  conclusions  appear  to  me  to  be  valid.  (See  The 
Repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  by  P.  Orman  Ray,  Ph.D.,  Cleve- 
land, 1909).  He  shows  that  much  has  been  written  about  the  part 
which  Douglas  took,  and  of  his  motive  in  the  matter,  is  not  sustained 
by  adequate  evidence,  and  that  some  things  which  Douglas  claimed, 
as,  for  instance,  that  for  eight  years  prior  to  the  repeal,  he  had  stead- 
ily advocated  it,  appear  to  be  unreliable.  But  conceding,  as  we  may 
well  concede,  the  authorship  of  the  repeal  to  David  R.  Atchison,  and 
perhaps  also  in  part  to  Judge  William  C.  Price,  it  is  Douglas  with 
whom  we  have  to  reckon  as  the  man  responsible  for  the  form  of  its 
presentation,  for  its  report  from  the  Committee,  and  for  its  adoption 
by  Congress  and  discussion  by  the  country,  and  Douglas  was  proud 
to  be  known  as  its  responsible  author. 

And,  whatever  Douglas'  motive  at  the  outset,  or  even  if  he  had 
then  no  motive  except  that  of  the  possibility  of  being  removed  from 
the  chairmanship  of  the  Committee  on  Territories,  to  make  way  for 
Atchison  to  introduce  the  bill,  he  must  ultimately  have  seen  that  he 
was  certain  to  be  held  responsible  for  it,  and  it  was  well  for  him,  if  he 
expected  to  be  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency,  to  use  to  his  advantage 
in  the  Southern  States  what  was  certain  to  be  used  to  his  disadvantage 
in  the  States  where  a  strong  anti-slavery  sentiment  existed. 

Beyond  any  reasonable  doubt  Douglas  hoped  to  gain  sufficient 
political  influence  in  the  slave-holding  states  to  make  him  President. 
In  the  two  sketches  of  Lincoln's  life  which  he  himself  prepared, 
Abraham  Lincoln  stated  that  after  his  return  from  Congress  in  1848. 
he  returned  to  the  practice  of  law  with  more  ardor  than  he  ever  had 
manifested  before,  but  that  the  Missouri  Compromise  recalled  him 
to  political  activity.  When  Abraham  Lincoln  found  himself  recalled 
to  political  life  by  a  great  moral  crisis  in  the  life  of  the  nation,  it  was 
the  good  fortune  of  Illinois  to  be  able  to  furnish  to  Abraham  Lincoln 
a  foeman  worthy  of  his  steel.  He  did  not  have  to  go  out  of  his  own 
State  to  meet  the  national  issue.     Illinois  furnished  him  an  arena  of 


*  Theoretically,  such  a  case  might  have  risen  in  any  one  of  the  five  States  carved 
out  of  the  Northwest  Territory,  but  it  would  not  have  been  lil<ely  to  rise  in  Wisconsin 
or  Michigan,  because  tliey  were  newer  and   moro  remote  from  slave  territory. 


19 

national  proportions.  He  did  not  need  to  go  to  Missouri  or  to  bleed- 
ing Kansas,  though  he  paid  an  important  visit  to  the  latter ;  he  was 
able  to  beard  the  slavery  lion  in  his  political  den  in  his  own  State  and 
the  State  of  Douglas. 

An  Illinois  Foeman  Worthy  of  Lincoln's  Steel. 

Who  can  measure  the  influence  upon  Lincoln  of  the  fact  that 
Stephen  A.  Douglas  was  in  1854  and  still  in  1858  not  only  a  resident 
of  Illinois  but  a  dominant  force  in  national  politics?  The  joint  debate 
between  these  two  great  men  stands  out  in  our  national  life  and  occu- 
pies a  place  all  its  own.  The  significant  fact  of  our  present  purpose 
is  that  this  contest  found  both  of  its  notable  participants  in  this  State 
and  the  State  itself  on  tiptoe  eager  for  the  contest  between  them. 

Both  Lincoln  and  Douglas  knew  that  Illinois  was  not  a  unit, 
and  each  of  them  used  that  fact  to  the  utmost  to  the  disadvantage  of 
the  other.  Douglas  repeatedly  charged  Lincoln  with  uttering  senti- 
ments in  Northern  Illinois  which  he  would  not  dare  to  repeat  in 
Egypt;  and  Lincoln  succeeded  in  committing  Douglas  to  the  "Free- 
port  heresy"  which  ultimately  proved  his  undoing. 

But  Lincoln  forced  the  issue  on  this  platform,  that  while  the 
Constitution  recognized  slavery  as  existing,  and  he  had  no  plan  or 
purpose  to  interfere  with  it  where  it  then  w^as,  the  framers  of  the 
Constitution  had  clearly  understood  that  slavery  was  an  evil,  and  it 
was  a  thing  to  be  faced  as  such.  At  Galesburg,  Lincoln  quoted  Doug- 
las as  saying  that  Douglas  did  not  care  whether  slavery  was  voted  up 
or  voted  down ;  and  he  proceeded : 

"Judge  Douglas  declares  that  if  any  community  wants  slavery,  they  have 
a  right  to  it.  He  can  say  that  logically,  if  he  says  there  is  no  wrong  in 
slavery;  but  if  you  admit  that  there  is  a  wrong  in  it,  he  cannot  logically  say 
that  anybody  has  a  right  to  do  wrong.  He  insists  that,  upon  the  score  of 
equality,  the  owners  of  slaves  and  the  owners  of  property — or  horses  and 
every  other  kind  of  property — should  be  alike,  and  hold  them  alike  in  a 
new  territory.  That  is  perfectly  logical  if  the  two  species  of  property  are 
alike  and  equally  founded  in  right.  But  if  you  admit  that  one  of  them  is 
wrong,  you  cannot  institute  any  equality  between  right  and  wrong. 

"Now,  I  confess  myself  as  belonging  to  that  class  in  the  country  who 
regard  slavery  as  a  moral,  social  and  political  evil  having  due  regard  for 
its  actual  existence  among  us  and  the  difficulties  of  getting  rid  of  it  in  any 
satisfactory  way,  and  to  all  the  constitutional  obligations  which  have  been 
thrown  about  it;  but,  nevertheless,  desire  a  policy  which  looks  to  the  pre- 
vention of  it  as  a  wrong,  and  look  hopefully  to  the  time  when  as  a  wrong 
it  may  come  to  an  end.  He  is  blowing  out  the  moral  lights  around  us  when 
he  contends  that  whoever  wants  slaves  has  a  right  to  hold  them." 

It  was  thus  that  Lincoln  came  to  his  position,  not  as  an  aboli- 
tionist, but  as  one  who  could  say  what  Lincoln  did  say  with  great 
deliberation  at  Springfield  on  June  17,  1858: 

"  'A  house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand.'  I  believe  this  govern- 
ment cannot  endure  permanently  half  slave  and  half  free.  I  do  not  expect 
the  Union  to  be  dissolved — I  do  not  expect  the  house  to  fall — but  I  do  expect 
that  it  will  cease  to  be  divided.  It  will  become  all  one  thing,  or  all  the 
other.  Either  the  opponents  of  slavery  will  arrest  the  further  spread  of  it, 
and  place  it  where  the  public  mind  shall  rest  in  the  belief  that  it  is  in  course 
of  ultimate  extinction,  or  its  advocates  will  push  it  forward  till  it  shall  be- 
come alike  lawful  in  all  the  states,  old  as  well  as  new,  north  as  well  as  south." 


20 

How  carefully  Lincoln  had  prepared  this  paragraph  and  its 
context  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  when  Douglas  made  quotations  from 
it  a  few  months  later,  Lincoln  was  able  to  repeat  it  word  for  word, 
saying  as  he  did  so,  that  Douglas  had  repeated  it  so  often  that  Lincoln 
had  learned  it  from  him.  That,  of  course,  was  only  an  excuse  for 
knowing  it  so  well  that  he  could  repeat  it  months  after  the  occasion 
for  which  it  had  been  prepared.  The  fact  is,  that  when  Lincoln  went 
before  the  convention  which  on  June  17,  1858,  nominated  him  as  a 
candidate  against  Douglas  for  Senator,  Lincoln  had  determined  to 
force  the  slavery,  issue  upon  moral  grounds,  indicated  by  the  repeal  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise :  and  the  man  with  whom  he  had  to  discuss 
that  issue  was  not  John  C.  Calhoun  of  North  Carolina  or  any  other 
statesman  from  the  Southern  States,  but  Stephen  A  Douglas,  of 
Illinois. 

The  Slavery  Issue  National  and  Moral. 

Considered  in  their  intellectual  aspects,  it  is  hard  to  decide  which 
to  admire  the  more,  the  speeches  of  Lincoln  or  those  of  Douglas. 
But  what  we  are  to  remember  is  that  Lincoln  deliberately  forced  the 
consideration  of  slavery  in  its  ethical  aspects.  Douglas  set  forth 
strongly  his  claim  for  "squatter  sovereignty."  He  maintained  that  the 
founders  of  the  republic  never  intended  that  there  should  be  uniform- 
ity in  matters  of  local  concern,  but  that  there  should  be  large  liberty 
in  each  State  to  decide  its  own  policy  in  matters  within  its  own  bound- 
aries. The  slavery  issue  thus  was  an  issue  for  each  State  to  determine 
in  its  own  way.  He  insisted  that  to  hold  this  principle  was  not  to 
commit  one's  self  to  the  pro-slavery  view ;  he  did  not  care,  so  far  as 
this  principle  was  concerned,  whether  slavery  was  voted  up  or  voted 
down,  but  he  did  care  for  the  sacred  right  of  each  State  to  work  out 
its  own  salvation  in  matters  of  its  own  concern. 

But  what  Lincoln  said  at  the  outset,  he  reiterated  in  nearly  every 
speech,  and  stated  thus  in  the  debate  at  Ouincy: 

"The  difference  of  opinion,  reduced  to  its  lowest  terms,  is  no  other  than 
the  difference  between  the  men  who  think  slavery  a  wrong,  and  those  who  do 
not  think  it  a  wrong.  The  Republican  party  think  it  wrong;  we  think  it  is 
a  moral,  a  social,  a  political  wrong.  We  think  it  a  wrong  not  confining  itself 
to  the  persons  or  the  states  where  it  exists,  but  that  it  is  a  wrong  in  its 
tendency,  to  say  the  least,  that  extends  itself  to  the  existence  of  the  whole 
nation.  Because  we  think  it  wrong,  we  propose  a  course  of  policy  that  shall 
deal  with  it  as  a  wrong.  We  deal  with  it  as  with  any  other  wrong,  in  so  far 
as  we  can  prevent  its  growing  any  larger,  and  so  deal  with  it  that  in  the 
run  of  time  there  may  be  some  promise  of  an  end  to  it.  We  have  a  due 
regard  to  the  actual  presence  of  it  amongst  us,  and  the  difficulties  of  getting 
rid  of  it  in  any  satisfactory  way,  and  all  the  constitutional  obligations  thrown 
about  it." 

It  was  no  political  accident  that  drove  Lincoln  to  this  position. 
The  Kansas-Nebraska  bill  and  the  Dred  Scot  decision  had  practically 
nationalized  slavery.  This  he  affirmed  in  his  speech  in  Springfield, 
June  17,  1858,  and  in  that  speech  declared  that  a  house  divided  against 
itself  could  not  stand.  He  knew  what  answer  Senator  Douglas  would 
make.    There  was  nothing  in  the  Chicago  speech  of  Douglas  on  July 


21 

9,  1858,  that  surprised  him,  and  Lincoln  was  present  and  heard  it. 
Douglas  quoted  Lincoln's  "house  divided  against  itself"  paragraph, 
and  commented. 

"In  other  words,  Mr.  Lincoln  asserts,  as  a  fundamental  principle  of  this 
government,  that  there  must  be  uniformity  in  the  local  laws  and  domestic 
institutions  of  each  and  all  the  states  of  the  Union. 

"Now,  my  friends,  I  must  say  to  you  frankly,  that  I  take  bold,  unqualified 
issue  with  him  upon  that  principle.  I  assert  that  it  is  neither  desirable  nor 
possible  that  there  should  be  uniformity  in  the  local  institutions  and  domestic 
regulations  of  the  different  states  of  the  Union.  The  framers  of  our  govern- 
ment never  contemplated  uniformity  in  its  internal  concerns.  Mr.  Lincoln 
has  totally  misapprehended  the  great  principles  upon  which  our  government 
rests." 

Lincoln  did  not  misapprehend.  He  knew  just  what  he  was  doing, 
and  he  knew  why  he  was  doing  it.  He  was  determined  to  force  the 
fight  with  Douglas  on  these  two  grounds,  that  the  slavery  issue  was 
national,  and  that  it  was  fundamentally  moral. 

Illinois  is  not  the  only  State  in  which  Lincoln  might  have  form- 
ulated or  forced  that  issue ;  but  Illinois  was  the  State  in  which,  above 
all  other  States,  that  issue  could  be  squarely  joined  between  himself 
and  the  advocate  of  "squatter  sovereignty,"  Stephen  A.  Douglas. 
The  event  made  Douglas  a  Senator  again,  and  two  years  later  it 
made  Lincoln  President. 

Illinois  the  Forum  for  Lincoln's  Greatest  Speeches. 

Illinois  offered  to  Lincoln  a  forum  for  the  delivery  of  very  nearly 
all  his  greatest  speeches  up  to  the  time  of  his  departure  for  his  Inaug- 
ural. If  we  except  only  the  Cooper  Union  address,  virtually  all  the 
other  of  Lincoln's  outstanding  speeches  were  delivered  in  his  own 
State,  and  it  was  the  best  possible  place  for  their  delivery.  The 
"House-divided-against-itself"  speech  has  already  been  referred  to. 
His  "Lost  Speech"  at  Bloomington,  May  20,  1856,  could  not  so  well 
have  been  delivered  in  any  other  State  convention.  His  Peoria  speech 
of  October  16,  1854,  might  have  been  ignored  if  delivered  in  another 
State,  but  in  Illinois,  it  virtually  made  certain  the  contest  four  years 
later  with  Douglas. 

Illinois  Gave  Lincoln  Most  of  His  Offices. 

Illinois  gave  to  Lincoln  every  office  that  he  ever  held,  except 
that  of  the  Presidency  and  the  postmastership  of  New  Salem.  Even 
in  those  important  positions  Illinois  exerted  an  influence  far  from 
negligible.  When  he  was  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency  he  recorded 
in  a  sketch  of  his  life  written  with  his  own  hand  that  his  election  as 
captain  of  his  company  in  the  Black  Hawk  war  gave  him  at  the  time 
more  satisfaction  than  any  subsequent  honor.  He  also  recorded  that 
his  defeat  in  1832  when  he  was  a  candidate  for  the  Legislature  was 
the  only  defeat  he  ever  suffered  at  the  hands  of  the  people.  The 
people  who  thus  voted  for  him  whenever  they  had  opportunity  were, 
down  to  1860,  wholly  Illinois  people.  Even  in  the  election  of  1832 
when  he  was  defeated,  that  part  of  Illinois  that  knew  him,  the  part 


22 

adjacent  to  and  inclusive  of  New  Salem,  voted  overwhelmingly  in 
his  favor.  A  Legislature  declined  in  1858  to  make  him  Senator;  a 
President  in  1848  declined  to  make  him  Land  Commissioner,  but  the 
people  of  Illinois  gave  him  every  office  which  he  ever  asked  of  them. 

Illinois  Fence  Rails  and  Their  Various  Uses. 

Illinois  did  something  for  Lincoln  worth  remembering  in  pre- 
serving some  of  his  fence-rails,  and  the  memory  of  his  making  them. 
He  made  them  in  1830,  and  the  State  Republican  Convention  of  1860 
was  held  in  Decatur,  only  ten  miles  away  from  where  those  rails  still 
formed  some  part  of  a  fence.  Thither  came  Lincoln,  to  attend  the 
convention  that  on  May  9  and  10,  1860,  was  to  elect  delegates  to  the 
National  Republican  Convention,  to  be  held  in  Chicago,  scarcely  a 
week  later,  May  16.  The  northern  part  of  the  State  was  still  strongly 
for  Seward,  though  the  Chicago  Tribune  had  already  come  out 
squarely  for  Lincoln.  But  the  Decatur  Convention  was  not  long 
divided.  Richard  J.  Oglesby  and  old  John  Hanks  had  found  two  of  the 
old  rails,  and  at  the  opportune  moment  they  were  brought  into  the 
Convention,  with  a  reminder  that  Lincoln  was  "the  rail  candidate." 
So  he  proved  to  be ;  and  the  Seward  boom  fell  flat  in  Illinois.  From 
Decatur  the  Lincoln  hosts  went  almost  directly  to  Chicago,  carrying 
with  them  the  fresh  enthusiasm  of  their  Decatur  experience. 

Illinois  the  Scene  of  the  Convention  that  Nominated  Lincoln. 

Finally,  Illinois  offered  to  Lincoln  a  place  for  the  National  Re- 
publican convention  of  1860.  In  the  boisterous  young  city  by  the  lake, 
within  the  borders  of  the  very  State  where  Lincoln  had  split  his  rails, 
convened  the  delegates  from  all  the  States  where  there  was  organized 
opposition  to  the  extension  of  slavery.  We  do  not  know  what  would 
have  happened  if  the  Republican  Convention  had  been  held  in  some 
other  city  where  as  many  men  were  shouting  for  Seward  as  in  Chi- 
cago were  shouting  for  Lincoln.  We  do  know  that  the  galleries  were 
potent  then  and  even  now  not  wholly  lacking  in  their  power  to  influ- 
ence a  body  of  delegates.  It  was  Lincoln's  own  State  that  furnished 
the  theater  for  that  dramatic  act  which  made  him  President  of  the 
nation. 

But  the  theater  was  not  the  whole  play.  Illinois  was  geographic- 
ally and  politically  even  then  a  State  whose  support  was  of  vast  impor- 
tance to  the  ticket  of  the  new  political  party.  Illinois  did  not  dictate  the 
nomination ;  that  was  done  by  the  opponents  of  Seward,  after  failure  to 
discover  another  candidate  who  could  carry  the  convention  with  good 
prospect  also  of  carrying  the  election ;  but  the  influence  of  Illinois  in 
both  these  matters  was  important ;  and  Illinois  was  by  that  time  united 
in  support  of  Lincoln.  And,  when  all  else  has  been  said,  it  is  not  to 
be  forgotten  that  Illinois  furnished  a  large  fraction  of  the  shouting. 

Lincoln's  Farewell  and  Return  to  Illinois. 

The  time  came  for  him  to  say  farewell  to  his  own  Illinois.  He 
said  it  first  to  his  aged  step-mother,  who  remembered  with  loving 
heart  how  he  had  been  dear  to  her  as  her  own  son,  and  had  never 


23 

spoken  to  her  an  unkind  word.  He  said  it  to  his  old  neighbors,  as  he 
stood  on  the  rear  platform  of  the  train  with  the  wet  eyes  asking  them  to 
commend  him  to  God  in  their  prayers.     And  then  he  went  away. 

He  came  not  back,  save  only  the  sacred  memory  of  him,  and 
the  holy  pride  with  w^hich  he  was  held  to  lasting  honor,  and  the  dust 
that  once  had  enshrined  his  great  soul.  Thus  wrote  Walt  Whitman 
in  the  spring  of  1865 : 

"When  lilacs  last  in  the  door-yard  bloomed, 

And  the  great  star  early  drooped  in  the  western  sky  in  the  night, 

I  mourned,  and  yet  shall  mourn  with  ever  returning  spring. 

0  ever-returning  spring!  trinity  sure  to  me  you  bring; 
Lilacs  blooming  perennial,  and  drooping  star  in  the  west, 
And  thought  of  him  I  love. 

Over  the  breast  of  the  spring,  the  land  amid  cities, 

Amid  lanes  and  through  old  woods  (where  lately  the  violets  peeped  from 

the  ground,  spotting  the  gray  debris;) 
Amid  the  grass  in  the  fields  each  side  of  the  lanes — passing  the  endless 

grass; 
Passing  the  yellow-speared  wheat,  every  grain  from  its  shroud  in  the 

dark-brown  fields  uprising; 
Passing  the  apple-tree  blows  of  white  and  pink  in  the  orchards; 
Carrying  a  corpse  to  where  it  shall  rest  in  the  grave, 
Night  and  day  journeys  a  cotfin. 

CoflBn  that  passes  through  lanes  and  streets, 

Through  day  and  night,  with  the  great  cloud  darkening  the  land, 
With  the  pomp  of  the  inlooped  flags,  with  the  cities  draped  in  black, 
With   the   show    of    the    States    themselves,    as    of   crape-veiled    women 

standing. 
With  processions  long  and  winding,  and  the  flambeaus  of  the  night, 
With  the  countless  torches  lit — with  the  silent  sea  of  faces  and  the  un- 
bared heads. 
With  the  waiting  depot,  the  arriving  coffin,  and  the  somber  faces, 
With  dirges  through  the  night,  with  the  thousand  voices  rising  strong 

and  solemn; 
With  all  the  mournful  voices  of  the  dirges,  poured  around  the  coffin. 
The  dim-lit  churches  and  the  shuddering  organ — where  amid  these  you 

journey, 
With  the  tolling,  tolling,  bells'  perpetual  clang; 
Here!    Coffin  that  slowly  passes, 

1  give  you  my  sprig  of  lilacs!" 

The  long  journey  ended.  The  lilacs  bloomed  and  drooped.  The 
gates  of  Oak  Ridge  opened  and  closed.  Abraham  Lincoln  was  at 
home  again,  in  his  own  Illinois.* 

As  the  body  of  Lincoln  returned  to  the  soil  of  his  own  State, 
Edna  Dean  Proctor,  then  a  young  woman,  wrote  a  noble  poem,  a  copy 
of  which  in  her  own  handwriting  hangs  in  the  tomb  of  Lincoln,  from 
which  I  quote  a  few  lines : 


♦Aln-aham  Lincoln  was  assassinated  on  Good  Friday  nisht,  April  14,  1865,  and 
died  the  following  morning.  His  funeral  was  held  from  the  White  House  at  noon 
on  Wednesday,  April  19.  The  body  left  Washington  at  7  o'clock,  Priday  morning, 
April  21,  and  journeyed  by  way  of  Baltimore,  Harrisburg,  Philadelphia,  New  lork, 
Albany,  Buffalo,  Cleveland,  Columbus,  Indianapolis  and  Chicago.  The  departure  from 
Chicago  was  at  8  o'clock  p.  m.  on  Tuesday.  May  2.  Springfield  was  reached  next 
morning.  The  Springfield  funeral  took  place  on  Thursday,  May  4.  Late  on  the  after- 
noon of  that  day,  his  body  was  laid  to  rest  in  Oak  Ridge  cemetery. 


24 

"Now  must  the  storied  Potomac 

Honors  forever  divide; 
Now  to  the  Sangamon  fameless 

Give  of  its  century's  pride; 
Sangamon,  stream  of  the  prairies, 

Placidly  westward  that  flows, 
Far  in  whose  city  of  silence 

Calm  he  has  sought  his  repose. 

"Not  for  thy  sheaves  nor  savannas 

Crown  we  thee,  proud  Illinois! 
Here  in  his  grave  is  thy  grandeur, 

Born  of  his  sorrow  thy  joy. 
Only  the  tomb  by  Mount  Zion 

Hewn  for  the  Lord  do  we  hold 
Dearer  than  his  in  thy  prairies, 

Girdled  with  harvests  of  gold." 

Is  Illinois  Capable  of  Producing  More  Lincolns.^ 

Times  have  changed.  We  no  longer  have  or  need  those  same 
conditions,  but  w^e  need  men  of  the  same  spirit.  Is  IlHnois  adapted  to 
produce  men  now  of  the  Lincoln  type?  We  have  sung  tonight  our 
State  song  w^hich  has  some  merit,  and  some  undeniably  fine  Hnes.  I 
could  wish  that  it  had  more  idealism.  It  is  not  enough  that  we  have 
rivers  gently  flowing  or  prairies  verdant  growing  and  straight  roads 
leading  along  section  lines  to  Chicago,  nor  that  the  breezes  murmur 
the  musical  name  of  our  State.  What  does  that  name  mean?  To  the 
Indians  it  meant,  'We  are  men.'  It  was  a  proud  boast  of  the  manhood 
of  the  State.  Are  we  producing  manhood  like  Lincoln's?  I  have  not 
undertaken  to  write  a  new  State  song,  but  I  have  written  a  little 
rhymed  sermon,  and  that  is  no  apology : 

Not  thy  farms  with  cattle  teeming, 

Illinois,  Illinois, 
Nor  thy  factories  smoking,  steaming, 

Illinois,  Illinois, 
Nor  thy  railroads  hauling  freight. 
Made  thee,  or  can  make  thee  great, 
Righteous  manhood  builds  a  State, 

Illinois. 

By  thy  rivers  gently  flowing, 

Illinois,  Illinois, 
Are  there  any  great  men  growing, 

Illinois,  Illinois? 
Long  before  the  white  man's  ken. 
Proud  thy  boast,  "My  sons  are  men"; 
This  thy  glory  now  as  then, 

Illinois. 

Lincoln's  ashes  thou  dost  cherish, 

Illinois,  Illinois, 
Guard  his  virtues,  lest  they  perish, 

Illinois,  Illinois, 
Justice,  righteousness  and  skill. 
Honor,  faith  and  strong  good  will, 
These  thy  guiding  beacons  still, 

Illinois. 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 

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THE  INFLUENCE  OF  ILLINOIS  IN  THE  DEVELOP 


3  0112  031800698 


